Shifting sleeve devices may be used in the operation of petroleum wells to isolate an annulus behind a tubing or work string, allowing communication to be established later. Shifting sleeve devices may also be used with selective release tools. In these tools, sections are held together by a sleeve that maintains a position of the load bearing apparatus. Shifting the sleeve disengages the load bearing apparatus, thereby allowing the segments of the tool to separate and to release a lower section of the tool. Multiple sleeves may be run into a wellbore.
Shifting sleeve devices are often run into a wellbore using wireline, which increases the costs due to additional tool and set-up requirements. Use of wireline, however, allows multiple sleeves to be run into the same wellbore because the sleeves may be keyed for selective operation by a matching shifting tool. Alternatively, a ball may be dropped into the wellbore to cause the ball to engage a seat of the sleeve that has a diameter smaller than the ball. Subsequent application of pressure in the tubing or workstring causes the sleeve to shift. In shifting sleeve devices having multiple sleeves, the restricted diameter of the seat must be reduced for each additional sleeve to cause each ball to engage only the seat of the sleeve intended to be shifted. This sequential reduction of the diameter of the seat results in an inability to subsequently run tools through the sleeves.